What a difference a week makes. The bath and sink are outside awaiting collection by the council; the bathroom is stripped back to the plaster awaiting tiling, en suite number one is plastered and ready for tiling, en suite number 2 was created today - all the studding went in, double boarded, fire and so and insulated. Unfortunately the plasterer is on holiday for 10 days so we'll have a wait till that one is progressed.



It's beginning to feel real now. We bought a ton of tiles on Thursday and by sheer coincidence got a great deal in showers in the tile shop. The two showers we'd bought in Junction 2 Interiors were not ordered in time and they offered us replacements, which when I checked on the web were up to £150 cheaper than they were charging us (199.95 on the web J2 charging us £350). So I cancelled and found in this tile shop in Kingswinford 3 showroom models ranging from £900 to £1200. It was one of those moments where both parties got what they wanted. The owners had been unable to sell them and were having the display removed at the weekend. We were lucky. We got 3 shower cubicles and trays originally priced at £3000 for £800. This went some way to compensate for the fact that the stud walls are more than double our budget (£900 instead of £400)

It felt last week like the project had taken over our lives. I kept sneezing and being fluey until I realized that I was reacting to dust. Once I started to wear a mask things improved - there is so much dust in the house old stuff and the new stuff being created with every job - especially the carpentry materials and all the sawdust. I didn't quite take to bed this week but was generally on a go slow. Performing in the Birmingham Book Festival on Thursday night was touch and go but I made it. My partner was so tired he didn't come - strange not having him there to do the filming or to mike me up for recording. So - I have no means of reviewing my performance. I'll have to rely on what I've been told by others - that they really enjoyed my pieces.

Andrew took the day off today to go walking with his group. I hope it's cleared some of the cobwebs out of his head and left him feeling a little less stressed. It's been a long day. It's now 12.30 a.m. and I can barely keep my eyes open.

The partition walls are in and the spaces have been transformed. One wall is in one of the bedrooms (Bedroon no 2) what used to be my office - a room 17ft x 16ft. The builders have created the space for the ensuite shower room and I have to admit to being quite taken aback by the transformation. It's a room within a room and the very high ceiling makes if feel much bigger thaan the 6ft x 6ft square it is. The second wall is the one at the top of the stairs that encloses what is currently my bedroom and shower room into one suite (previously two separate rooms with a bit of landing between them). It is so cosy I wonder why I've never thought to do it before.

The two guys who acheived this worked like the clappers from 9-6 on Saturday and 10-6 today. Andrew and I looked on in awe from time to time and quietly admitted to each other that there's no way we would have been able to do a fraction of it in the time they've taken. Would probably have taken us three weeks. Especially as I've not been able to do much since Thursday when I was laid low and had to spend the day in bed. Friday was not much better and it was Andrew's day off. He insisted I do nothing until I was properly well and for once I heeded his request because I felt so lousy.

There was a point on Thursday when I felt I would not be able to write anything in time for the Writers Without Borders performance on the 9th. I was laying in bed at 8 p.m. listening to Radio 4 when David Dimbleby announce that Question Time was coming from Birmingham Convervatoir as part of Birmingham Book Festival. That jolted me. If Question Time could make it I could certainly make an effort to be part of the book festival. I struggled up and with head lolling on my chest from sheer fatigue at times I managed to write a piece on ritualistic killings (or theme is Rituals and Traditions) - albeit of goats. I managed to struggle in to rehearsal on Saturday morning and surprisingly the piece was well received.

I've done virtually nothing in terms of working on the house this weekend - lots of paperwork and research on the web. After the mammoth vacuuming session after the guys left at 6 p.m. we went for a well earned meal at Cafe Rouge - to spend one of our buy-one-get-one-free main courses token from the Sunday Telegraph last week. It's our day off tomorrow....but we'll see.

It was 2 o'clock before I made it out of bed today. That cold took a hold last night completely blocked my head. Now those of you who know anything about Louise Hay's philosophy will know that colds are about doing too much - having the head full of too many things. Yes - that could be me. I'm living slap bang in the middle of a building site, I've got a performance next Thursday with Writers Without Borders, and preparing for two in December; one at the Town Hall as part of Worlds Aid Day and the other with Amnesty International for the 60th anniversary of Human Rights Day. I'm still seeing coaching clients. It wasn't until I did some self Reiki that I felt human enough to get up and face the day. Andrew (my partner) was very understanding. He's nearly finished the painting in one of the bedrooms in preparation for the ensuite which hopefully will be fitted next week.

The builder is coming on Saturday to put in a couple of partition walls. He came round today to measure up so I'm hopeful the work will begin as agreed. The drains guys were 3 hours late as they were stuck on another job. The negotiation skills I learned in Egypt came in useful tonight. 'What's your best price?' I asked and negotiated a £850 discount. They can start next weekend.

I learned how to use a chisel and lump hammer to remove tiles today - and spent most of the afternoon and evening taking the tiles off the bathroom wall. I stopped about 9.30 p.m out of consideration for the neighbours. Tomorrow is supposed to be my day off but already it looks like we'll have to go and buy the ensuite and bathroom equipment and, because Andrew is having Friday off, we'll have to put out two settees and the dishwasher (which has very conveniently stopped working and after 17 years and not worth repairing) out for the council to collect on Saturday morning. We are both tired and its only Wednesday and we'll be working with the guys at the weekend. It's the 1st October today we only have 9 weeksif we are to get this in on time.

The constant packing is beginning to take its toll. Today I have a cold - loads of sneezing and coughing and blowing of nose. Maybe its the change in weather or maybe its breathing in years of dust. I cleared a bookshelf in my son's room that hasn't been touched in 7 years. Did I need to keep any book that hasn't been looked at in 7 years? There were a couple of novels I've put aside to read again (in another 7 years maybe). My son has outgrown most of his books and yet it was still hard to put them into the charity bag. I even found myself thinking I could save them for the grandchildren. No Predencia NO. Let go. If I ever do another HMO I'm sure it will take a fraction of the time because there wont be any of the emotional attachment to clearing rooms - no looking through past school reports; through music concert programmes; no reminiscing about the pride I felt when son number one was selected to play basketball for England, no welling up at the thought that it was all 10 years ago, no reflection on whether I've been a good enough parent. No doubt about whether I'm handling son number three's concerns that his home is being turned into a business. Sometimes if feels like this is more exhausing than the acutal work.

Today the application form to have the gas pipe in the kitchen moved came. Yesterday it took me 15 minutes and 5 calls to get through to the right department of Nationalgrid. I was even transferred to BT Glasgow by a Nationalgrid employee in the Midlands. It really pisses me off when this happens when I'm on an 0870 number. Not only are they charging an arm and a leg to do the pipework but they're making money out of my phone calls too. We're having second thoughts about paying over £1000.00 to move the meter. Does anyone know of a lightweight fridge/freezer that could sit on a plinth about two feet off the ground?

I've nearly done all the bedrooms now and the loft is looking pretty fat (where did all that space go?) Tomorrow I start on the bathroom - not only is there an airing cupboard to be emptied but there's a bit storage cupboard almost to the ceiling full of suitcases and travel bags. That wonderful week in La Tour de France just two weeks ago is beginning to feel like a distant memory.

I'm working my way round the bedrooms and already the loft is looking full - despite the mountain of paper I took to the recycle centre and the copiously filled black bags that went to various Charity shops. I like to give to Barnardos; not only because I believe in their cause but because it is on the corner of the High St in Erdington and if I get there early enough there're places to park.

The clearing is hard work physically, emotionally and spiritually. But much more challenging is getting workmen to give quotes or respond to phone messages and turn up when they say they are going to. I was under the impression that due to the down turn in the building trade that there were a fair few buildiers just waiting to jump at the chance to work. Why then have we got the only ones that seem too busy to return phone calls - or can't start till March? I would like to think it is because they are bloody good and have loads of work on despite the looming depression that we keep being told is on the way. We've finally got a start date from a builder we have been courting. Please dear God let him turn up on Saturday and please let him be good.

Work on my house to convert it from a family dwelling to a HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) got underway properly today. It was a bit of a milestone and a huge relief after months of clearing and chucking out. It's amazing how much stuff a family can accumulate in 17 years.

It began in June with clearing the garden, some heavy pruning, lopping and digging to make the garden as low maintenence as possible. I suppose we could have just gone for concreting the lot (all 150 feet) but what with the current flooding problems being linked to the amount of land paved and unable to allow water to drain away - not to mention the expense - it seemed more sensible and cost effective to just get my head down and do it myself. It was great during those few weeks of sunshine we got in June to be out there doing battle with the ivy. I think I may have won a few battles where that is concerned but there is still a war on at the bottom of the garden. The shed is still partially clad in the damned thing and each time I ripped a chunk of ivy it took a chunk of the felt roof with it.

We have a plan. Clear out shed at bottom of garden, then out houses, loft, bedrooms 2,3 and lounge. Begin work on all of above then when complete tackle bedroom 4 and kitchen, and finally the biggie - the kitchen. Bedrooms 1 and 5 would be last as they needed least doing to them. I'll let you know in the next blog how the plan is working.